National security should not be captive to political machinations

Time of India

18-05-2025

The resounding success of India's initial phase of
Operation Sindoor
in targeting the nerve centres of terrorist organisations, both the LeT (
Lashkar-e-Taiba
) and JEM (
Jaish-e-Mohammed
), critical airbases and its AD network, is once again being shadowed by irresponsible statements by the Opposition's high-profile political leadership.
This trend of questioning the apex political leadership of the Indian government or attributing statements made by senior ministers out of context and questioning the success and credibility of the operations executed by the Armed Forces, are detrimental to India's national security. A key element of deterrence is not only clarity of the objective by the apex political leadership of the selected action plan to deal with an emergent situation or event, but also a need for the nation's unstinted support for its implementation. More so when the operations/ actions are still incomplete.
Here's a recapitulation of the events that led to the political grandstanding by Opposition. Post the killing of tourists by Pakistan proxies on April 22 in Pahalgam with the intention to create communal disharmony within the country, the government's response has been extremely robust, exploiting all the instruments of national power. It commenced with holding in abeyance the 'Indus Waters Treaty', while concurrently taking economic and diplomatic action. The Armed Forces were given a free hand by the Prime Minister to carry out retribution. On the night of May 6 & 7, in a precise and measured response with standoff weapons, the Armed Forces destroyed key terrorist infrastructure, without crossing the international border- LoC, in Pakistan's heartland. The response by Pakistan and effective counter response by India, led to the Pakistan DGMO requesting the Indian counterpart for cessation of hostilities, on May 10. The issue under contention is the post on X on May 17 by leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi. His public accusation of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar of 'informing' Pakistan about targeting its terror infrastructure as part of Operation Sindoor is malicious because the EAM was referring to the call made to Pakistan DGMO after the first strikes on terror targets, conveying India' s purpose and intent -- a fact the DGMO has elaborately explained previously at his press conference. The MEA later clarified that the statement was a 'gross misrepresentation' of facts. But the damage had been done, to diminish the impact of this resounding response of India against a state-sponsored terrorist act.
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We have witnessed the ill-effects of similar incidents earlier, where such political brinkmanship by senior Opposition leaders, creates avoidable controversies in the country and diminishes the impact of India's messaging to its adversary. It gives Pakistan media and its ISPR an opportunity to exploit this to their advantage. It gives Pakistan fuel to pedal its false narratives to the western media, which is anyway prejudiced against India. It gives Indian response, coloured religious overtones.
We saw this in 2016 when Delhi CM Kejriwal sought proof from the government about the Army Special Forces' surgical strikes, post Uri terrorist attack and then again in 2019, after 'Balakot'. On both occasions, we saw this being exploited by Pakistan media to deny the impact of Indian operations and rubbish Indian claims. It has to be appreciated that showing of proof in public domain is like sharing the tactical drills of the Armed Forces, which is what the adversary wants to know. A preventable security lapse.
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A mature polity should not discuss issues of national security in public domain. Resolute leadership with a united voice on national security will add to the deterrence of the nation against this proxy war by Pakistan. In a democracy, credit for strong resolute action will always be taken by the political party in power and the PM. We saw this in 1971 when the credit for creation of Bangladesh was attributed to the Congress and Indira Gandhi. Therefore, let us in unison support India's policy shift from 'strategic restraint' to '
strategic independence
'. Suitable deterrence will be instituted with the recent announcement by PM Modi, with a proactive 'modus operandi', against state-sponsored terrorist acts on Indian soil.
(The writer is former General Officer Commanding in Chief, Indian Army)